Italy Vacation November 2017 - May 2018 Timeframe

There's a forum on first time international travel tips. Irrespective of whether first time applies, it has some guidance on, eg, travel, flight, rail. And plenty of "tips and tricks". If I recall, a lot of the discussion seemed applicable to or Europe based.

With 2 or 3 weeks available, you should make this an Italy + 1 trip, eg, Switzerland. 18-20 days is ideal, you'll start hitting your stride day 7-10.

Book flight into any start or end point, say Rome or Geneva or even Munchen, work your way to your end destination. You may find a good deal this way and/or cover more ground.

You can "backpack" and stay in a mix of nice hostels, 2 star hotels. Very economical. Research pays off here.

Tips and tricks:
- Les Rome, more Florence
- half the clothes, twice the money

Hopefully I/we can get you some more on point info moving forward.

I absolutely agree with the "more Florence, less Rome" sentiment. Florence blew my expectations out of the water. Rome was exactly what I expected. We also stayed in a sleepy little Tuscan town/village for a few nights and have AMAZING, postcard-like pictures from that.

Everyone was pretty friendly, and most people can communicate in English. Service in shops and restaurants is very different than you are used to...don't be offended.

Traveling from city to city on the trains was very easy after studying how people use the ticket machines. The lines at the counter were very long, but the machines were the way to go once we watched people use them.

We went over New Year's. New Year's in Florence was a big deal, and there seemed to be no rules. Fireworks buzzing by your head and firework smoke so thick, you could barely see a block away. It was wild in the streets, but not really out of control. There were piles of broken wine and beer bottles about 30 ft wide and 6 feet tall all over the city the next morning. It was nuts.

Just got back from 13 days in Italy. Flew in to Venice
Did...
Venice 3 days
Florence 3 days
Amalfi Coast 5 days
Rome 2 days
Flew out of Rome

Here are my suggestions:

Pay extra for the economy comfort seats on your way there, the extra space helps a lot when trying to sleep on your way there.

Wine is cheaper than water at most places.

AIR BNB is cheap and great there. you can also do laundry. Also,our hosts at each spot showed us where and where not to go.

Less Venice/Rome - more Florence/Tuscany.

Book your trains 3 months out.

Don't bring over much cash, everyone takes cards. Get a credit card with NO foreign transaction fees- I have the Chase Sapphire.

Don't over pack, we made it work in 2 carry ons - a small roller and a backpack. Getting on/off trains was super easy compared to our other American friends that packed way too much.

If going to amalfi, get a private car to take you to amalfi from Naples train. Its $100 and well worth it. Naples sucks btw.

We stayed in Praiano on the Amalfi Coast at an AirBNB, quiet town between amalfi and positano. very relaxing and isn't as crazy as capri and the others. very easy to get to the others spots via bus and ferries. don't stay in Sorrento - its huge compared to the others, JMO. make sure you stretch - so many stairs..

You can spend an afternoon in pompei on your way back to naples. very cool

I liked Florence a lot and highly suggest it if you've never been. The history, food, and wine there are awesome. Gotta go see Statue of David, all the basilicas, the bridge, etc. We rented a car to go to some vineyards in Tuscany, they have wine tours available too. We went to Panzano, small town famous for Chianti Classico. Very cool spot, make sure you save your data for directions and keep two hands on the wheel, they don't F' around there driving.

Venice is really expensive. We stayed in a neighborhood where the locals live so it wasn't that bad, but it was still pricey. other than the canals, venice didn't do much for me.

Rome is huge, a lot of people, and so much to see. we only did 2 days there and just powered through all the must see's. I could've probably done an extra day there, but it was the end of our trip and we we're exhausted.

Pisa, btw. Small investment of time to see the tower. Hop off the train between Florence and Italian Riviera. Seems like I walked, or more likely took short cab + walk. It's a whole lot lean-ier standing near it than in photos.

I think the biggest difference in the classes was the ability to have assign seats.

My wife and I (late 20's) did Rome-Naples-Florence-Verona-Venice for 17 days a couple of years ago.

If I could offer any advice on flights, if you can't find cheap-ish flights into Italy from your origin, just book a flight into another nearby European city and hop on one of the budget airlines to Italy.

We flew into Munich and spent a few days in Bavaria before catching a flight from Munich to Rome via Ryanair (cost about 40 Euro total). From there we booked trains from Rome to Naples and back north.

If you're not in your twenties and you've got an idea of the cities you want to visit, don't get the Eurail pass. Its not worth the extra money.

As far as cities to visit, if you're not going to devote time to seeing some of the more famous historic sites (the Colosseum, the Vatican, the forum, etc.) spend two nights there and move on.

I cannot stress this point enough, skip Naples. It has all the danger of New Orleans with half the charm. It is a city in decay with a swelling homeless population.
But, we did visit Pompeii. It is well worth the trip if you're in the area.
If I had the chance to do it again, I'd stay on the Amalfi (nearby) or on the islands (Ischia and Capri are beautiful).

As others have said, Florence is arguably my favorite spot on the trip. And Venice is worth a look if you're there. But the most interesting part was St. Mark's and the gondola ride. You can do that in a day.



One final note, if you're looking to be budget conscious on your trip, save on flights, save on hotel/hostel stays, but DO NOT skimp on food. You're going to be in arguably the most culinarily rich places on earth.
Eat, drink, ask for local specialties and house wines, experiment.

quote:

---

one of the most unsafe feeling cities i've ever been to.

---

Ditto. The 7-8 block walk from the train station to our hotel was about the most harried I felt the entire trip.

Although, we did have pizza at Da Michele (apparently the most famous in the city) the first day we were there. The place was packed, so the guy sat us at a table with a random stranger who turned out to be a Bama fan.

So we talked football for an hour or so over pizza. Pretty cool experience in kind of a crappy city.

quote:

---

Italy Vacation November 2017 - May 2018 Timeframe
You know you cannot bring your guns overseas right?

---

What an odd response.

quote:

---

What an odd response.

---

not at all if you are familiar with the OP, he wears a gun to cut the grass.